Deeds Not Words
by PipraPaprika
Summary: (AU) It's 1919. It's New York City. It's the beginning of a new era and Anne Lister's exciting new life across the Atlantic. How will she cope with the challenges of rescuing an oil company while persuading her new friend, the ever-frail Miss Walker, that their 'friendship' is something much, much deeper? Including suffragettes, gangsters, glamour and lemons. Warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings:**

Just to cover my ass here but the following contains bad language, violence, explicit sex scenes and references to rape. (I do hope you like the story, though!)

**Notes: **

Alright. People.

Firstly, this story, and particularly the way it is portrayed in the series really speaks to me.

So, from the heart, here is 'Deeds Not Words'.

The title is the slogan of the Suffragette group headed by Emmeline Pankhurst (mentioned here) as there are some more historical shout-outs in the story (I will try and keep things historically accurate, but there is only a number of things I can be bothered to google while I have this incredible love story to write about.)

Also, I envision these characters as more fictional - kind of as portrayed on screen because the idea of using real people in fiction, even if they are long-deceased, make me a wee bit uncomfortable, I'll admit.

So, this is like the series. The most romantic thing I have ever seen...

*Big dreamy eyes*

Enjoy the story (it may get quite long!)

**Chapter 1**

"We think it might be better…if you were to start afresh," Jeremy Lister said at last, catching his daughter accusing gaze across the table. "Something new."

"What?" Anne demanded of her father, beady eyes stealing his own accusingly. "What do you mean?"

"Well…with your aunt's death…" Jeremy said, feeling rather weary all of a sudden.

"And what about it?" Anne demanded tartly, now paying rapt attention.

"The…um…well, the estate has been left to…of course, yourself and your sister," Jeremy said gruffly.

"…And this is why I'm 'starting afresh'?" Anne wondered, arching her brow.

"Well, yes, I mean…you're both grown women…"

"Are we really?" Anne said dryly. "I hadn't noticed."

"Please Anne, be serious," said her sister, the_ better_ sister.

"So we're really being serious here," Anne said, with a dawning horror somewhere in her gut.

Throughout her life there had always been the risk of rejection but, perhaps until now, she hadn't truly believed that her family could be so seriously ashamed of her eccentric behaviour.

"This is _seriously_ my starting afresh?"

"The estate has been in the Lister family for seven generations," Jeremy began, quickly losing heart faced with his daughter's furious expression (and she _did_ do fury well). "And will, we hope be in the family for seven more, which is why-"

"Why you want Marian to have the estate and for me to bugger off somewhere else," Anne finished, in her own words and considerably more succinctly.

"Please don't use that word," Marian said quickly, with a shudder.

"Because she is engaged to marry and I am not, is that it?" Anne said, almost shouted. "Because-"

"Because her children, yes, with said husband, will continue the family line and should therefore inherit our family home," interrupted her father calmly.

"We'll buy you out, Anne," Marian said looking hopeful as her sister's head snapped around to glare at her instead. "Half the value of the estate will be yours to do with…as you see fit."

"Look, a school friend of mine owns a company in New York City," Jeremy continued. "One of the directors is about to resign his position and I have spoken with the other directors and pulled a few strings and they've agreed you may take an active role in the company (political climate willing, that is). You might be just what they need! You can settle down. Perhaps America is your chance to be a little more…yourself. God knows they're more liberal."

"You're…you're getting rid of me?"

Anne's face crumpled as the truth came to settle.

No matter how closely related to people she was, or home many times somebody professed to love her, they never really wanted her, not in the end.

"My God you actually are!" she gasped.

"No, Anne. We're just thinking of what's best. None of us are getting any younger and-"

"You think I _choose_ to be different?" Anne shouted.

"Perhaps not, but there's no harm in trying not to be!" Marian said passionately. "And with this chance to reinvent yourself, maybe you could manage it."

"I can manage an estate better that any man could and you know it," she hissed back to her sister, both her bitterest enemy and her staunchest ally.

"Unless you are willing to marry-" Marian began.

"I _never_ will," Anne cried vehemently, eyes stinging.

"Then it's settled," Jeremy said.

Anne stood, and looked upon the two people in the world she could call kin. She mustered all the dignity she could.

"Fine," she said flatly, and left the dining room.

Storming upstairs, Anne slammed her door like a child. A big forty-one year-old child.

A big-forty-one-year-old child who didn't want to be sent away for loving other women, or for wearing trousers or for writing to Emmeline Pankhurst.

But, the truth remained. Having won the vote or not, Miss Lister didn't have the means to support herself unless the took the money offered in lieu of the estate, and the estate had, for a number of years, made it quite clear that it didn't want her.

Faced with the stomach-scouring sting of rejection she had felt many times during her interesting life, traitorously, Anne started to cry. And, as she prepared to pen the letter to…well, let's say a very _dear_ friend of hers, more traitorously still, she started to cry harder.

_Dear Mariana,_ she wrote.

_I'm afraid I'm moving to New York._

_I don't think we shall ever see each other again._

_Sorry._

_Yours with great regret,_

_Anne Lister._

There. Brief and informative, everything a letter should be.

She sealed it and gave it to the servant to send, then settled down at her table to document the day.

Her writing, typically so neat, was nearly illegible in the face of such enormous grief. It was not the fact that her family were all but demanding she move (and why would she stay after they had suggested such a thing?) but that they felt they _ought_ to, for reasons outside Anne's control.

Society was stifling and losing some of the gains in power that women in the country had made during the war now that the working men were back was something Anne felt to be keenly painful.

Perhaps America really _was_ the answer?

Deciding it couldn't be any worse, only days later, a very grim-faced Anne Lister boarded the King George, the ship that would take her across an ocean of water and ideology and deposit her in New York - the city that never sleeps.

"Or never sleeps with who society tells them to, as soon as I get there," she muttered, seizing the rail of the gangplank with perhaps unnecessary force and propelling herself inside the belly of the ship.

"She'll be aright," her sister nodded with rather forced optimism. "She…she'll be alright."

"Alright?" Jeremy laughed sadly, lamenting the tough love he'd had to show his eldest daughter. "The City won't know what's hit it!"

_Sea travel is filthy, or certainly is when the seas are so rough, _Anne wrote when she was well and truly away from British shores. _For days now, I have been cramped up in this cabin and goodness knows if there's one thing I cannot stand it is confinement._

_The ship itself, however, is very fine. They just finished converting it back into an ocean liner after it was a battleship in the war. I was rather hoping they would still have some torpedoes on board but I should be so lucky!_

_Yes, in fact the whole expedition thus far has turned out to be nothing but a bore. Moreover, I find myself rather disenchanted with the female populace. How did all the women become so fat and ugly during the war?_

_Perhaps it it not their rather disappointing appearance that dissuades me. Perhaps I am missing Mariana more than I thought, or at least regret that we did not share a proper goodbye. However, her choosing to marry a man put a stop to the idea of a long-term, mutual relationship quite satisfactorily._

_I will not sleep with another man's wife, and I had always made that clear. Even the 'disturbed and perverse' among us must draw some boundaries._

_I don't know why I write so sentimentally. Perhaps a lonely bed feels colder in the middle of the ocean?_

_But now I fear my ramblings will have to cease, for it is time for dinner._

_Why I was excitedly anticipating meals of mouldy ship's biscuits and pickled fish I shall never know - the food here is actually rather boring, and palatable enough that any real sailor should be ashamed._

_(If it's any more of that French muck I shall go mad!)_

Sighing, Anne slammed the book closed.

After dressing formally in her usual somber clothes, Miss Lister made her way to the dining hall on the ship and selected her meal. She had always had an admirable, though not quite ladylike appetite, despite being rather wiry in stature, and finished her food with gusto.

After having eaten, she was in a foul mood, despite her sated hunger, and went to storm off back to her cabin and Freud, but it was then that her eyes found something very, very beautiful.

_Fat and ugly women? I _**_do_**_ apologise!_

The woman looked fairly young and shivered, despite the warmth in the crowded room, at a table all by herself looking far less comfortable with the solitude than Anne had been.

She was oddly overdressed, even amongst the sea of guests adorned for dinner in their smartest things, with the air of someone who has a lot of money and no idea what to do with it.

She somehow reminded Miss Lister of little dandelion clock, strangely transparent and one breath away from total disintegration.

She was also very decidedly green in the face, and very decidedly _not eating._

"Are you quite alright, madam?" Anne had asked before she could wonder why she had bothered to ask it.

"I just…don't feel quite well," breathed the dandelion, trembling, eyes a little wider as she took in the other woman over the top of her expensive and uneaten meal.

Anne was dressed in a long skirt with matching jacket with a rather high collar - the whole ensemble making her look rather…austere…

Ann thought she looked wonderful.

Goodness! What_ poise!_

"Perhaps I should return to my cabin," she continued with the small quake of worry in her voice that came with making any kind of decision. "This…I don't know if coming down here was a good idea."

"Surely it was," chuckled the taller woman. "Otherwise how could anyone admire your lovely dress?"

Anne gave the…dress…an _extremely_ admiring look.

"Oh this, I don't know," Miss Walker stammered, dipping her eyes from where they had chosen to rest on her companion's jaw-line. "My cousin says it makes me look like a beige wedding cake."

"Well, you do look rather edible," Miss Lister whispered. "I'll admit."

Ann giggled, and shot Miss Lister a enquiring look, but wasn't brave enough to wonder what her stern-looking new acquaintance could mean by her comment.

"Well, that's very kind of you," she smiled gratefully.

"So, may I ask you why you are feeling so unwell?" Anne said, sitting down next to the subject of her scrutiny. "You haven't even a thing, look!"

The dandelion frowned.

"I…um, well I'm not a keen traveller, you see," she said in a whisper. "And um…I'm not too fond of…_boats."_

She looked at Anne with terror in her big periwinkle eyes.

"The Titanic_ sank,_ you know," she continued, quieter still, as if the ship might hear and get ideas.

Anne chuckled darkly.

"I think calling any ship 'unsinkable' is just tempting fate, wouldn't you agree?"

"But you don't think…you don't think _we_ might sink, do you?" Miss Walker continued, earnest with terror. "It's been awfully rocky. I haven't slept a wink since we left Bristol."

Anne peered into the younger woman's face critically where dark shadows were chalked under her light eyes.

"Hmm, I can see that," Anne said, tracing one of the shadows experimentally.

Ann Walker's heart gave a little lurch. She attributed it to fear.

"I'm just afraid that I'll be in my cabin," the dandelion clock gushed, pleased to finally share some of her anxiety about a horrible premature death. "And suddenly all the water will come in and I'll…"

"Well, the Titanic was another story," Anne said with dismissive reassurance. "Totally different engineering. You see, the ship's hull was divided into chambers so that if one were breached, the others would provide the buoyancy the ship would require to stay afloat. This is different. A more traditional but yet better reinforced hull. "

Anne's eyes began to shine and she spoke more passionately, leaning forward in her seat and gesticulating wildly (to the mild alarm of Miss Walker).

"In fact, in the future we may not need boats at all to transverse the Atlantic!" she continued breathlessly. "Did you know that last year an _aeroplane_ made it all the way across the ocean? From Ireland, I think, _all the way_ to the United States! Isn't that incredible? To _fly…"_

Miss Lister sighed happily.

"Just think! Plane loads of people…It mightn't even take a day!"

Miss Lister's face fell somewhat.

"I'm sorry, I must be boring you, so…I…forgot myself…" she said, seeing that the dandelion's beautifully open expression had become rather glazed as she stared at her.

"Not at all!" Miss Walker exclaimed with a disbelieving laugh. "Goodness! _I _must be boring _you!"_

"Of course not!" Anne grinned. "Discussing one's impending doom at sea I find most stimulating."

Miss Walker gave a nervous breathy chuckle as they shared a moment of eye contact.

It felt like rather a long moment.

"So…what brings you to America," Ann asked, retreating back into the convention of conversation, now that she had begun to feel rather peculiar all of a sudden.

"Family," Anne said vaguely.

"Oh! Are you visiting them?" Miss Walker asked interestedly.

"Leaving them."

The dandelion clock woman looked very sad for a moment.

"Oh…well, I'm really the last of my brood," she said in her quiet way that made Miss Lister strain to listen. "…Well, that's not true - I still have my cousin and my sister Elizabeth…and my aunts…And Mrs and…and Mr Ainsworth are always very good to me…"

The younger woman frowned for a moment, with such an intensity that Miss Lister longed to demand what she was thinking.

"They weren't too keen on the idea of my taking such a long trip," Miss Walker continued. "What with my ill health and all, but we've tried all the doctors in London, and they don't know what's wrong with me, so we thought, you know, we might try…"

Anne raised an eyebrow.

"The only ailment you seem to be suffering from in an empty stomach, here…"

Anne pushed the plate of food closer to Miss Walker.

"I could have them walk it back up for you if you would like," Anne offered hopefully.

"Um…that's quite alright," Miss Walker said. "But thank you, that was very kind."

Anne shrugged and then raised her glass of whiskey.

"To your health," she said with a strange little smirk. "Soon may it improve."

"They're thinking of bringing in prohibition in America, aren't they?" the little dandelion said, perhaps to put off eating for a few more moments.

"Then we must drink while was can, mustn't we?" Miss Lister replied with the sparkle of humour in her eye. "I myself intend to be _thoroughly_ drunk for the reminder of this blasted crossing."

The dandelion giggled and attempted some food, though after a few mouthfuls, which Miss Lister had supervised very closely, she daintily abandoned the meal.

"I don't think I can manage any more," she admitted, giving the most darling little stifled yawn.

"Oh! I'm sorry if I'm keeping you up," the mysterious stern woman said, looking fondly down at her wonderful new discovery.

"No, no…" Miss Walker insisted.

"And, goodness, forgive me!" Miss Lister said, laughing in quite an unnervingly charming way. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Anne Lister, of Shibden, well, previously of Shibden."

"I'm Ann too, Ann Walker," the dandelion informed Miss Lister. "But with no 'e'."

"Well, goodnight, Miss Walker," Anne said as she helped the dandelion kindly to her feet and led her gently to the plush staircase from the dining hall to the cabins.

The dandelion clock changed colour from ghostly white to rose pink as she blushed.

"Goodnight Miss Lister…" she whispered.

It was the early morning and sleep had not yet found Miss Lister.

Groaning with frustration, she flipped onto her stomach and, taking two tight fistfuls of her pillow, crushed her hips into the mattress.

Beneath her, in the dark realms of imagination, was the beautiful Miss Walker, lying like the perfect porcelain doll she resembled, lashes batting prettily with pleasant surprise and unquestionable arousal as Anne ground herself against her.

"Oh stop it," Anne whispered to herself angrily, as the illusion was shattered almost immediately by the rather less satisfactory rub of starched cotton rather than smooth flesh.

She was being ridiculous.

Well, no. Not _ridiculous,_ as such, but she really had jumped the gun a little.

Miss Walker was young…innocent…_ill,_ for God's sake…

But what Anne had seen in that last over-the-shoulder glance of Miss Walker's as she ascended the stairs, had been _attraction._

In what capacity, it was hard to know, but it had certainly been there.

Perhaps Miss Walker was lying awake too, thinking of her? Perhaps she was frightened of the waves? And perhaps Anne, herself a seasoned traveller, ought to offer comfort?

No, she'd get some air.

Grabbing a cigarette and dressing herself carelessly, Anne left her cabin and went onto the deck, letting the freezing sea wind cleanse her of the uncomfortable heat that had lingered under her collar since her conversation with the lovely Miss Walker.

She looked out over the darkness that was the ocean and there, on the horizon were the twinkling lights of New York City and her new life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:**

Thank you Kujali for you lovely review! Big shout-out to you!

**Chapter 2**

"Eugenie, have you packed all your things? We're not going back for anything if you've forgotten it."

Anne frowned as she fastened her waistcoat and adjusted the long but slim skirt she had taken to wearing, her only concession to modern women's dress.

"And Eugenie, I must find an accountant right away if I am going to be meeting with the other directors…"

"Already, Madame Lister?" the girl replied in French. "Do you not want to rest after your trip?"

"Whatever for?" Miss Lister laughed, not all that kindly. "I didn't _swim_ the Atlantic, did I?"

Eugenie knew her employer well enough not to make any attempt at an answer and merely continued to pack Miss Lister's trunk so it could leave the ship with them.

They had docked.

This was America.

Despite her reluctance about the whole business, Anne couldn't help but be impressed by her first glimpse of New York. There were buildings such as she had never seen, great towering things with scaffolding wrapped like webbing up their faces.

She was awed.

And interrupted.

"Miss Lister!" cried a voice. "Miss List- Yes! Sorry to…I just…"

"Miss Walker?" Anne said, smiling as she young woman arrived breathlessly beside her.

Through the swarm of passengers, had come dashing a little flower.

Miss Walker was more like a daisy today than a dandelion, in a smart white coat with a yellow beret perched atop of her curls.

The daisy presented Miss Lister with a slip of expensive paper with an address neatly written on it.

Miss Lister was not to know, but the was in fact the third attempt at writing the note - the other two had been discarded for the writing not being even enough. The wonderful Anne Lister must have neatly-written notes, must she not?

"I wondered…Well, goodness knows we shall both be busy getting used to a new place," Miss Walker laughed nervously. "But I…I've been thinking and…"

The daisy became rather delightfully pink all of a sudden.

"Perhaps you could call on me at my house?" she rushed before common sense or propriety could stop her. "If you wanted, of course. If not I completely understand and I'm sorry I-"

"Miss Walker, I would be delighted to visit your home," Anne said, in the voice it was hard to argue with.

The young woman beamed, though perhaps sadly, as if Miss Lister's answer had been a charitable act, rather than one of shameful lust.

"Well…super!" Ann said, not quite knowing what to do with herself in the face of acceptance.

"Miss Walker, please, you must not tire yourself out," said a man, rushing to her side as if she might sag with the exhaustion of running over to Miss Lister.

"Oh! Of course, sorry," she said, shooting Anne a parting smile and letting herself to be led away.

The lady's chauffeur helper her into her motor car, whereupon she was wrapped in furs like a precious little parcel that might shatter at the slightest jolt of the car.

Anne Lister's eyes tracked every step of this progress, drinking it in.

"I'll see you soon!" the daisy called, and then wilted under the attention of the couple of stares she had attracted by doing so.

She was never so bold as to shout, or normally even _speak_ in public. What _had_ come over her?

_Miss Lister_ knew very well what had come over her.

Love.

Grinning to herself, Anne examined the paper that the young woman had given her. It seemed Miss Walker lived in one of the more enviable regions of the city, only to be expected of the owner of the handsome maroon motorcar which had begun to move, carrying it's precious cargo home.

Miss Lister got into her own cab.

"I want a hotel as close to this address as possible," she told the driver, flinging the paper at him. "I have a friend in the area."

"Er…si- ma'am?" the driver said, unsure of his passenger. "I…guess you wouldn't know but…that's all the way in Brooklyn…"

"All respectable society is in Brooklyn," Miss Lister retorted sniffily. "I shall stay in Brooklyn."

Reaching the neighbourhood of her choosing. Miss Lister procured a hotel, a smart one that a sensible single woman without income wouldn't really choose, especially since the money from Shibden hadn't been wired through yet.

It was grand, but functional and Miss Lister found it rather to her liking, especially owing to the nearby amenities…

_Just to think, the wonderful Miss Walker lives only two block away!_

Anne had every intention of making good on her promise to visit her beautiful new acquaintance, but first she needed to set herself up and introduce herself to her fellow directors.

"You must be er…Miss…Lister?" asked the first man that Anne's critical dark eyes had settled on upon entering their-_her_ company boardroom.

"Yes, how are we all, gentlemen," Anne asked cordially, wringing each of the men's hands in turn with a grip that made their fingers tingle. "A pleasure meeting you, I hope we'll all enjoy working with one another."

One of the men coughed awkwardly.

"Ahhh, perhaps you haven't been informed," he began. "But er…Paleopower is actually hoping to…merge with another..er…venture. And as such we would all take more of a back-seat role to the running of the company."

"And we would be what?" Anne wondered, not at all casually. "Shareholders only?"

A third man stepped forward. He was devilishly handsome and had one of those smooth New York voices that could make any straight woman swoon.

Anne Lister was not. So she didn't.

"Miss Lister, you are a very lucky woman," he began with his easy charm. "You see you're about to make a huge sum of money. This other firm has offered to buy us out, big pay-outs for all of us. You could…God, you could go on _holiday!_ Or…buy some new clothes!"

Anne's glare became suddenly a lot more hawk-like.

"All you have to do, honey," he told her with a shadow of a wink. "Is just pop your name on there, and you'll be rich. Overnight."

"What am I signing?" Anne demanded of the man, who was taken aback by her tone. "Where is the rest of the document?"

"This is all the bit you need, sugar," he said, teeth glinting under the ceiling lights.

Anne thought he could do with losing a few…

"Where is the part of the document explaining the terms on which I am signing?" she asked the gathered group.

"It's just-"

"Bring it to me!" Miss Lister commanded.

It appeared. Then, while the group watched her, Anne read the pages and pages of tiny text.

She put it down with a sigh.

"So…the only reason you agreed that I could co-direct this venture," she said at last. "Is because I am a _woman,_ and you thought me _stupid_…enough to sign this."

"Miss Lister!" laughed the first man. "This is…You would be receiving a considerable sum of money!"

"I _consider_ the sum scandalous!" Anne snapped. "The company is worth more than that."

"But no!" the handsome man said passionately. "After the war…who will _need_ so much oil? There's no fighting."

"No fi-…I can't _believe_ I'm hearing this!" Anne spluttered. "The motor car, gentlemen! Factories…the boat I have spend near enough a bloody _week_ on to be here today, all guzzle your oil! _Our_ oil!"

She threw the paper down in disgust.

"I won't do it!" she informed them.

"We were rather hoping you'd be reasonable about this," said Mr Charming.

"Well, now you know me better," Anne snapped. "We will meet here tomorrow at nine AM _sharp_ to discuss what we're going to do. And in the meantime, you can contact your…whoever he is, and tell him the deal's off!"

She turned back to the charming man.

"Have a nice day,_ sugar,"_ she said sagely.

And with that, she stalked away.

"I had a business meeting this morning and I really needed your calming influence," Miss Lister said, shrugging off her coat into James' waiting hands.

"Have you found anywhere to stay?" Miss Walker asked, showing her guest into her lovely sitting room.

"Ah, yes," Anne said. "The Grand."

"The Grand!" Miss Walker repeated excitedly. "But that's just around the corner! What a wonderful coincidence!"

"Well…yes," Anne said, finding Miss Walker's carpet suddenly rather fascinating.

So did Miss Walker, who found it a little difficult to address her guest owing to a strange breathlessness which had taken over her.

"So…what happened in your meeting?" she said at last, peeking hopefully at her distinguished visitor.

Yes, what _did_ happen in a business meeting?

Miss Walker had always wondered. Her father, a brilliant industrialist had his days packed full of them.

Anne groaned and pushed a hand to her forehead.

"The idiots want to sell the company," she burst crossly. _"My _company, now. And they want to do it for much less than the company is really worth. They're lazy and incompetent, and damn all of them."

Miss Walker looked frankly scandalised, but gave a small giggle.

"Pardon the language…" Anne said, pleased to see no disapproval in her frien-_acquaintance_.

"Well you have been to a business meeting," Ann said admiringly. "So I imagine you could curse all you wanted."

Anne frowned.

"Really, though, Miss Walker. I didn't mean to offend you," she said seriously. "I would hate for you to think I'd come barging in and…and befouled your.."

"Anne!"

Miss Walker blushed.

"If…if I may call you…?"

"Of course you may, Ann," Miss Lister said with a doting smile.

"Anne, you haven't burst in!" Miss Walker insisted, shuffling a little closer to demonstrate her earnestness. "And I won't get many other visitors and it _really_ is nice to have to company."

"I enjoy your company just as well, Ann," Miss Lister said, letting her eyes wander over her hostess.

Miss Walker was today more of a forget-me-not in a blue dress with a lace trim. A dress that, following the newest of fashion trends, showed rather a bit of…leg…

"A lovely dress," Miss Lister said suddenly, realising she had been staring.

"Thank you!" the forget-me-not trilled gladly, and proceeded to launch into a very detailed explanation of the dress and it's creative process.

_An _**_artist,_** thought Miss Lister, barely listening as her whole attention was spent watching Miss Walker's perfectly plump little lips form her words.

Her sweet little upturned nose…her big, expressive grey eyes, thick lashes and freckles…

"…So what do you think?"

"Sorry, Miss Walker?" Anne said, snapped from her reverie.

Miss Walker's face fell.

Ah…

_Miss Walker is a strange creature. Heaven knows she is rich and beautiful, but it is as if she feels she is a burden. A burden I would be happy to carry, though I doubt very much a thought such as that has yet crossed her mind…_

Anne knew she would have to pay better attention in future, but what could she say to excuse her lapse in concentration? I'm falling in love with you?

"Um…I was saying…You could be pop round tomorrow…" Ann whispered, as if afraid of being reprimanded for such foolish optimism. "We might even have some biscuits, the chocolate ones they're so fond of over here…if you…"

And then Anne did something terrible, something fiendish.

She smiled the same smile that had won her the most unlikely of people from the palaces of India to the Scottish moorlands.

Ann was frankly alarmed by the wash of fondness that came over her.

"I think that sounds _wonderful,"_ Miss Lister whispered to the poor trembling forget-me-not, seeing Ann's dilemma very clearly. _"…Miss Walker…"_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Anne strode down to the hotel lobby at her characteristically alarming pace.

_If it's that bloody idiot Marshall from the company again…_

"Miss Lister?" said the tinny voice in the Grand's lobby telephone after the employee had handed it to Anne. "Uh, hullo…it's it's James…Miss Walker's-"

"Yes, I know who you are, what is it?" Anne barked authoritatively.

"Miss Walker really hasn't really been feeling well," James continued, having dropped his voice a little, clearly not acting under orders. "She hasn't eaten a morsel of food since Sunday and I was hoping you might be able to talk her round a little. She's very fond of you, you see."

"Right away," Anne said, Marshall forgotten.

Only minutes later, Miss Lister's dark overcoat could be seen storming past the concierge in Ann's building and arriving at her apartment door.

Upon her arrival, James nodded his appreciation to the woman who, despite being rather alarming, was also Miss Walker's main topic of conversation.

Or had been, before the doctor's appointment. Now Miss Walker wasn't saying anything.

"Where is she?" Anne demanded of the man.

"In the sitting room," James said softly. "Please be gentle with her, she is prone to these sort of episodes."

"Right, thank you," Anne nodded, and pushed past him into the room, raising her voice. "Are we going to eat anything then, Miss Walker, or starve?"

James winced.

"Because I can't be having that, Miss Walker," she continued. "Not when I am so fond of you…"

Miss Lister's eyes widened as, having struggled to find the young woman, she saw her now wedged between to chairs against the wall trembling with sweet little sobs.

"Ann!" she gasped as dashed to the poor young woman, today a rather wilted freesia in her pale clothes, curled up into a tiny ball in the corner of her sitting room.

"Miss…Miss Lister," Ann gasped, getting shakily to her feet and defiantly scrubbing at the tear marks on her cheeks.

"Ann, are you alright?" Miss Lister breathed, darting forwards to take her hands.

The freesia shook her head furiously and buried her face in her knees.

"Alright then," Anne said gently tugging Ann to her feet - rather difficult as she had become as saggy as a marionette puppet.

Miss Walker collapsed on to her plush velvet sofa and sobbed.

"Ann, what _is_ the matter?" Miss Lister demanded. "Have you had bad news from England?"

"I…I went to the doctors…" Ann whispered.

"Yes, and what happened?"

"I…he…"

"What did he say?" Anne blurted, afraid. "Are you very ill?"

"No…Well…not really but…"

The freesia gave a weak sniffle and Anne began rubbing soothing circles on her hands. They were delightfully soft.

"He said the pain in my back is just in my head," Anne confessed through her shaky sobs. "He said that…he said that is has to do with…when sometimes I…"

"What?" Anne whispered in her most honeyed voice.

"I hear voices, Anne," Miss Walker hissed - eyes wide and terrified.

"Ah…" Anne said slowly, settling back into the seat, thoughtful.

"I just…the doctor referred me to a psychiatrist," Ann garbled. "But I told him I'd been before and it just made it w-worse so he said I had to try this…new thing instead…"

"Psychoanalysis?" Anne asked her.

"Yes!" she cried. "Where they ask you all these qu-questions and…"

Miss Walker looked bleak.

"Anne, they think I'm mad," she told her friend with earnest sadness. "I have…religious hysteria, or something, because of the voices and the pains and I think it's because I-"

Miss Walker looked away from her friend very quickly.

"Miss Walker," Anne laughed softly, brushing the tears from her satin cheek. "You are not _mad,_ you're just an _artist."_

Ann was still crying. In fact, Miss Lister's kind words had made her cry almost harder.

"But please son't be cutting your ears off," she continued with a chuckle. "They're far too pretty for that, hmmm?"

She gave one of the ears a reassuring stroke.

"I don't want to see a doctor, a…psychoanalyst," Ann whispered desolately. "I can't…"

She shuddered.

"They ask too many questions," she said looking sick. "And I just couldn't…"

Miss Lister pursed her lips thoughtfully and hung her arm comfortingly around Ann's little shoulders.

"You could talk to me, though, couldn't you?" she asked.

"Do you practice psychoanalysis?" Ann asked, willing to believe just about anything that Anne told her about herself.

"Not officially," Anne conceded. "I was not permitted to sit the exams for the degree."

She threw her free arm up in the air.

"The joys of being the wrong sex! But I've read all the books," she murmured, close to Miss Walker who had curled up like a squirrel. "And I even studied Freud's work in Austria, you know. Before the war, of course."

"So…you could?" Ann whispered, eyes alight with hope.

"In theory," Miss Lister told her. "And I consider myself just as, if not more, able than whoever you'd otherwise be sent to."

Then, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, Ann smiled - perfect and dimpled.

"Alright, then," she agreed, laughing with relief. "When could we start?"

Anne pursed his lips in a calculated moment of deliberation.

"How about right now?"

Miss Walker was grateful to be able to send a telegram back to England reporting progress.

Yes, she was seeking medical help.

The fact that this came in the form of the rather eccentric though eminently clever Miss Lister, Ann had the sense not to mention.

And, shockingly, she was rather looking forward to her sessions.

What a fascinating person Anne really was! She'd travelled all over the place! And how she dressed in those suits…

Ann herself dressed carefully for Miss Lister's next visit.

Well she would, wouldn't she? It was like going to see a doctor, (although whether that would really call for the effort of curling up her hair, painting her nails a different colour each day to match her outfit and wearing such expensive perfume, Ann didn't know).

"Miss Lister's here," James told her when the promised hour finally arrived.

Ann's heart hammered.

"Send her in, please!" she said breathlessly.

And then in she came, at her characteristically impossible speed.

"Miss Walker!" she grinned with her toothy smile.

Ann dipped her head shyly.

"Miss Lister…"

_Why_ Miss Lister was agreeing to do this for free, when she no doubt had a million better things to be doing, Ann could not fathom, yet there she was, giving Ann that very particular look she couldn't put a name to.

"Any tea, Miss Lister?" Ann asked in her mousey way. "Or coffee, even?"

"Tea would be wonderful," Miss Lister decided. "Thank you,"

She nodded sharply to James.

"Now, how have you been feeling these past few days?" she asked, turning to her cherished patient.

"Better from talking to you last time," Ann said truthfully. "But I-"

"You…?"

Miss Lister raised her eyebrow questioningly, but Ann shook her head.

She didn't quite know how to explain the strange dreams she had started to have, involving vague flashes of white sheets, bare skin, black eyes and that wonderful wolfish smile which was currently hidden under concern as Miss Lister frowned at her?

And how would she explain the ache between her legs, and the overwhelming conviction that she was bleeding early, thanks to the wetness on her nightdress every morning when she woke?

Well, she wouldn't. Wouldn't even try. Even when Miss Lister gave her that look, as if she already knew.

"Er…it's not important," Ann said lamely.

"Well, in that case, Miss Walker," Miss Lister said with her winning smile. "Shall we get started?"

Anne motioned Miss Walker to her own sofa.

Gently, Miss Lister helped Ann down and laid her flat and lifting her patient's head, Miss Lister slotted a pillow there.

"How's you back?" she asked gently and with worrying genuine concern. "Is this alright?"

"Yes, thank you," Ann replied with a doe-y smile.

Then, there was a knock on the door before James popped his head around.

"Miss Walker, ma'am, your t-"

"Get out!" Anne snapped. "When the door is closed you don't come in here, understand? This is a highly confidential session!"

"Yes, ma'am," James said, shooting nervous glances between the terrifying guest giving orders and his real employer. "Er…I just have your tea…"

"You can put it down there," Anne said carelessly motioning to the coffee table.

"Thank you, James," Miss Walker said softly as he retreated.

"I'm…er…sorry to interrupt," he stumbled.

And he really was. It looked as if the two women had been about to-

Well it wasn't his place to speculate.

But if it _were…_

His employer had been lying on her sofa with the other woman leaning hungrily over her. An interesting position, no doubt.

Anne tutted as James closed the door with his apologies and Miss Walker laughed despite herself.

"I think you frighten him," Ann giggled.

Miss Lister smirked a laugh.

"Good. Serves him right!" she brayed. "It's important that we aren't interrupted. We wouldn't be interrupted in a doctor's office, so we shouldn't be interrupted here. Now…"

Anne looked down at her treasure fondly, with her expression one of boundless excitement.

"Let's start."

_A fascinating creature, is Miss Walker. She seems thoroughly afraid of herself, though so open to the rest of the world - like a wide-eyed child._

_But she is no child, that I can tell you. What I can see past her dress tells me that. _

_A pity she does not yet understand why she is trying to impress me (and I do confess myself impressed)._

_I can tell what she wants by the look in her eyes, how she permits me to help her to and from the sofa, though she does not require my assistance._

_My sidelong looks are returned._

_And one of these days, it will be across a pillow - I'm determined it should be so…_

"What are you writing, Miss Lister?" Ann chirruped merrily as she daintily drank her tea. "You're always scribbling in that book!"

"Let's call it my session notes," Miss Lister replied. "Or otherwise my innermost thoughts."

"Oh, then I shan't pry," Ann said, averting her eyes kindly, though she longed to seize the book, read every page and finally untangle the enigma that was her new friend.

Anne chuckled.

"Go ahead and read it," she laughed. "It shan't make sense to you. It's all in code."

"That's terribly clever!" exclaimed Miss Walker excitedly.

"So it your painting, Ann," Miss Lister said. "I should like to see some of your work, if it isn't too personal…"

Miss Walker was pink with pride.

"Oh, well…it is_ rather _personal…" she stumbled. "And I-I don't paint particularly _well_…but you can see it."

Anne inclined a 'yes' with her head and Miss Walker put her nervous energy to good use, speeding off to fetch some of her watercolours, leaving Miss Lister to admire the sitting room.

It was expensively furnished in a style beholden to great wealth, though it didn't seem that Miss Walker herself herself had chosen any of the decoration.

Anne wondered absently what wealthy little Miss Walker would make of Shibden, before realising with a sudden pang that neither were hers.

"Thank you, James!" Ann trilled rom the other room.

Not a second later, James entered nervously, laden with sketchbooks and canvases.

He swiftly retreated leaving Miss Lister to flip through the work.

"I know it's not…Well…I've never had any lessons…" Ann said, fidgeting her apology.

"They're fantastic," Miss Lister smiled, handling the pages like thin slivers of gold leaf. "You're very talented."

Now an even more delightful shade of pink, (which Anne though would look rather fetching against the white of her bedcovers), Miss Walker dipped her eyes shyly.

When she dared raise them again, Miss Lister was sitting rather close.

"Ann, you are very good," she said urgently, eyes singing with sincerity. "These are very good."

_Ann…_smirked Miss Lister's dream counterpart that night from over the edge of Miss Walker's bath tub, trailing her long fingers dreamily through the water. _You're _**_very _**_good…_


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes:**

Hello everyone! Thank you for continuing to read and thank you especially to those who have left reviews which really spur me on.

So...without further ado...

**Chapter 4**

"I feel…listless," Ann said, gazing at her stylishly coffered ceiling. "Sort of…as if I don't really exist sometimes. Do you ever feel like that, Anne?"

Miss Lister considered.

_"__I_ have always existed," she said thoughtfully and then grinned. "Perhaps a little too much sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Ann asked softly.

"I…back in England I was a bit of an oddity, even here I am," Miss Lister told her, looking a little forlorn. "I have never been able to conform…like it's a disease I have. I find it quite impossible, can't even consider it."

"Better than being so plain like me," Ann said with a small sigh.

"Whatever do yo mean?" Anne frowned. "You're anything _but_ plain, Miss Walker, goodness me!"

Ann smiled. And yes, she wasn't plain.

Anne reached out and took her hand - not plain either.

"What _you_ need, Miss Walker," Anne said with her lively, scheming enthusiasm. "Is _confidence,_ and a political voice."

"How so?" Ann wondered.

"I've become involved…" Miss Lister began in the voice she used to tell her interesting stories. "…Not majorly, because of the company, with the Suffragettes here."

Little Ann chuckled with uncharacteristic wryness.

"I…don't think my relatives would approve…" she said darkly.

"Miss Walker!" Anne laughed, disguising her sudden need to throttle these famous 'relatives'. "This is New York! The land of dreams! You ought to be able to enjoy that, oughtn't you?"

At the mention of dreams Ann became very thoughtful.

"Anne, what does _Freud_ say about dreams?" she asked Miss Lister who was looking alarmingly exhilarated after her outburst.

"Ambitions, you mean?" Miss Lister frowned. "Or…?"

"Dreams when you're - sorry - _one_ is asleep?" Miss Walker clarified.

She looked at Miss Lister hopefully for an answer, but with the memory of last night's edition fresh in her mind, she failed to quite meet the woman's eye.

"Why do you ask?" Miss Lister shot back, interested.

"See," Miss Walker frowned. "I've been…"

Ann trailed off, wondering how to phrase her problem.

"I've been having some very _odd_ sort of dreams…" she whispered. "…Lately."

"When did these start?" Anne asked, now the stern and rather handsome-faced diagnostician which did nothing to help Miss Walker's discomfort.

"When I arrived here," she answered. "And…once on the boat, I think."

"Nightmares?"

"No," Ann said, frowning. "They're very…well…"

She felt her face flushing.

_"__Enjoyable_ dreams, they just…I don't know why on Earth I would come up with them."

"They could be a reaction to the change of setting," Anne said sensibly.

"Could be…" Miss Walker agreed.

Anne watched her little hand tighten around a fistful of her dress' hem.

"What are the nature of these dreams?" Miss Lister asked, leaning closer. "I…may have had similar ones."

"I couldn't tell you," Ann whispered.

Miss Lister paused for a moment.

"Are they about sex?" she wondered in a confidential whisper.

Miss Walker looked alarmed, then confused.

"I don't…No!" she spluttered. "I don't…well, no, they couldn't be because…"

Her hands flapped uselessly by her sides.

"Because that wouldn't make _sense!"_

Miss Lister was very close now.

"Miss Walker," she breathed, eyes strangely syrupy. "Have you ever _had_ sex?"

"What?" Ann squeaked, sitting up so suddenly her back stung.

"I'm just asking you what Freud would ask you," Miss Lister said plainly, now sitting much further away.

The syrupy look had gone suddenly.

"Wha…I…"

Ann had no idea how to respond to such a question.

Such a _question!_

Had she ever had_…sex?_

She felt a trickle of wetness between her legs.

"Miss Lister…I think I want to stop now," she said in a strangled voice. "If you'll excuse me…"

Running from the room, Ann darted to her bedroom and to her en suite bathroom and pulled her skirt and underwear down.

No blood.

But it had felt like…

Perhaps she had an infection?

But…then she would have to go to the doctor…and he would have to _look…_

Giving a kind of involuntary gasp of terror as she viscerally remembered the sensation of a man's touch down there. It made her entire body shiver, as if she were trying to shed her own skin.

Meanwhile Anne sat, head in hands, in the sitting room.

What had she done asking a question like that?

What a _bloody_ idiot!

She was in such turmoil, she didn't hear the battering of Ann's feet.

"Miss Lister?" said the voice of the dandelion from the doorway looking unusually pale and as though she needed the doorframe she was leaning against to offer support. "Can I offer you any tea?"

"No…I'd better be going," Anne said thickly, swooping to her feet.

"Oh…right," Ann said weakly. "Well…I might go and have a lie down then, I'll just see you out."

The two women walked in silence to Miss Walker's door.

Anne donned her coat.

"I have," Ann whispered at last, so quietly it could have been a breeze, just as Miss Lister was turning to go.

"Sorry?" Anne asked, a little impatiently.

"I have had…I've…been with somebody," Miss Walker whispered. "He…it was only the once though…"

Anne felt a tightening in her chest.

"It was…at his house…" Ann continued. "And…well…we still write to one another…I think he might be coming over from England soon…But yes we…I did."

Miss Walker looked down with the upmost shame.

Anne paused, letting her head fall and her eyes squeeze shut in silent defeat.

Of course. Of _course_ there was someone.

I mean, just _look_ at Ann Walker. _Look_ at her. And a young millionaire to boot.

Some, sleek, impeccably dressed, _voting_ man popped into Anne's head and stayed there, long after she had bidden Miss Walker an uncharacteristically brisk goodbye and walked back to her hotel.

He leered at Anne from behind her closed eyes.

He laid sweet little Ann down in his bed. Removed his underclothes, and hers then parted her legs.

And it was so…_violent,_ wasn't it? Anne should be _screaming_ if anyone broke into her like that.

But the sadistic demon in Anne's vast mind didn't make Miss Walker scream, it had her moan, and beg her mystery suitor not to stop doing that…_appalling_ thing to her.

Because she was in love with him.

And she enjoyed being fucked by him.

Taking a shaky breath, Anne picked up Freud's work from where she had left it, and opened the thing at a random page.

The gave a bark of slightly manic laughter as she was reminded yet again that a higher power did exist by the work of God that was her page selection.

_"__Penis envy,"_ read the page's title.

Miss Lister flung the book against the wall, buried her face in her pillow and screamed.

"Morning chaps!" Miss Lister said tartly as she stomped her way into the office she, and the three gentlemen who owned the company with her, shared. "And I hope you finally opened that accounts report, Elton, it doesn't bite."

"I did…" the hopelessly handsome man said. "And…"

"And what?" Anne snapped slamming her briefcase down with very little patience for handsome men after her discovery about Miss Walker.

"We can't afford the new expansion," he told her. "I've looked at it forwards, backwards, sideways, upside down, we can't do it."

"Good Lord, you like the sound of your own voice, don't you?" Anne said scathingly.

"We need to drill for more oil, that's for sure," said Marks, the eldest of the four. "We can't promise all these companies full and not provide them with any!"

"To expand, we need money we don't have," Mr Handsome declared in his handsome voice. "The banks won't lend to us with our credit history, that's for sure."

"Miss Lister, you said you would have found an investor by now," said Mr Marshall, the last of the directors, with light accusation.

"I'm working on it," Anne said cagily, frowning as she remembered the setback that plan had taken.

"We have to write to the holdings company," Marshall continued. "And tell them that we can't pay-"

"You'll do nothing of the sort!" Anne snapped, crossing the space between them in one stride to glower at the man. "I_ will _have that money! Soon!"

Mr Marks gave a grunt of disbelief.

"Alright then, _Miss_ Lister," he chuckled unkindly. "See to it you do."

_It chafes my pride, but I know that I shall have to approach Miss Walker again, soon, and somehow make amends between us. She may be the company's last hope. _

_I only pray I have not inflicted permanent damage upon our friendship with my veiled forwardness._

_Perhaps, if what I fear is true, friendship is all it will remain. _

_Perhaps I will have the honour of attending her wedding to this mystery suitor of hers._

"Miss Walker," Anne smiled as she entered the room ahead of James who closed the door respectfully behind her as he took his quiet leave.

"Miss Lister!" Ann burst, shocked. "I didn't think you'd…How wonderful to see you! I bought some cakes in case you…for when you came!"

"I needn't stay if you don't want," Anne said, taking a seat cautiously. "I wanted to apologise for my…rather shocking behaviour. I really shouldn't have asked you…last time…"

"No! _I'm_ sorry!" Miss Walker interrupted shrilly. "I…I mean, whatever must you _think _of me?"

"I could never think ill of you, Ann," Miss Lister assured her. "I feared the question I asked you was inappropriate."

"Oh! No!" Miss Walker insisted. "Like you said - it's only what Freud would have asked me, isn't that right?"

"Hmm, yes," Anne said, dark eyes more inscrutable than normal. "But if you wanted to stop our sessions I would understand-"

"No! I…I feel so much better, Anne, really," Miss Walker insisted, feeling a sudden panic at the thought of the wonderful Miss Lister going away and never coming back.

In fact, she was already bounding towards her sofa where she settled herself down eagerly.

"Are we having another session today?" the dandelion asked.

Anne pulled a rather haughtily amused look which made Miss Walker's little tummy flutter.

"If you would like," she said.

Ann nodded resolutely and crossed her ankles on the seat which Miss Lister found oddly heart-melting.

_Beautiful Miss Walker…How could it ever just be about money…_

Feeling a surge of affection for the woman, Anne decided to do something daring.

If Ann felt as the older woman suspected she did, the two of them were wasting time while Anne floundered around in the dark.

It was time Ann found out what her dreams meant.

That was what the sessions were all about, weren't they?

"What are we going to talk about today?" Ann asked, wriggling eagerly.

"Actually," Anne said in her silkiest voice. "I was hoping to do more of a…physical exploration."

Ann's eyebrows knotted together but she didn't seem opposed to the idea.

Miss Lister stood and walked towards the sofa where Ann was lying, kneeling down beside it.

Ann watched bemused as Miss Lister pulled at the tie around her swan-like neck and took it off.

Gently, she tied it around Miss Walker's pretty eyes as a blindfold.

"What are we doing?" the dandelion wondered.

"It's a technique," Anne said in a low voice. "I'm going to do some things to you. Tell me at any point if you feel uncomfortable and want to stop."

"It's a technique?"

"Yes," Anne breathed, feeling rather hot under the collar. "It's an effective way we can find out things about ourselves. Now…"

Miss Lister felt a surge of heat as she laid her fingers upon Ann's soft face.

"What can you feel?" Anne whispered as she slid her hand down Miss Walker's burning cheek.

"Um…your finger on my…by my neck…" Ann said, a little breathlessly.

"How does that make you feel?" Anne whispered next to her ear.

"Sort of…"

Ann frowned.

_"__Is_ this a real technique?" Miss Walker asked, squirming a little.

"Oh yes," Miss Lister purred, sliding her hands down Miss Walker's arms. "How about this? How does it make you feel? Please, tell me everything or this doesn't work."

"Sort of…nice, I think, like a hug," Miss Walker said, a small involuntary smile on her face.

The smile vanished suddenly.

"What does_ that _mean?" she worried. "Does that mean I'm mad?"

"No, Ann," Miss Lister said with a chuckle that somehow increased Miss Walker's sensation. "Now this…"

Giving in to the urge, Miss Lister let her hand trace across Ann's little tummy. She felt the muscles tense.

Miss Walker gave a kind of half-moan, more of a huff as though she were uncomfortable and then gasped, sitting up immediately and yanking the blindfold off, eyes wide with panic, as Miss Lister's thumb grazed over her nipple.

"I'm sorry, should I stop?" Anne said urgently.

Ann wriggled uncomfortably.

"No….it just…"

She dropped her voice to the merest of whispers, panic in her eyes.

"Anne…I just felt that…_down there…"_

She motioned between her skirted legs with a fluttering gesture a look of horror on her face.

"And I…"

"And you what?"

"I've never felt…" she stuttered. "Or not really…I…"

"Sorry, you've never felt…sexual satisfaction before?" Anne asked, intrigued. "Not from this…person?"

"Wait!" Miss Walker breathed. "Is _that_ what that was?"

Ann gave a little shiver.

"No, not even close," she whispered.

"Not when he touched you?" Anne probed.

"No, nothing like that," Miss Walker answered. "I've never…"

"So you don't feel…aroused…when you…I presume…think of men?" Miss Lister asked her delicately.

"I really don't think about men, in…in _that_ way," Ann told her, frowning at the sudden thought that maybe she should.

Miss Lister sat back on her heels, triumphant.

_God, I love being right all the time._

"Does that mean I _am_ mad?" Ann repeated, voice quivering.

"No, Miss Walker, you are certainly not mad," Anne told her, taking her little hands as a comforting gesture (for what was to come might be a rather rocky revelation). "Just…_atypical_ in…certain respects. A bit like me, I should think."

"What does that_ mean?"_ Ann burst fearfully. "Anne, what does this all _mean?"_

"I think it means," Miss Lister said slowly and very carefully. "That you might prefer _women_ to men in a sexual sense."

Ann went completely still.

"Surely you can see…" Miss Lister whispered.

"B-but…I just…"

"Alright then, Ann," Miss Lister said gently, stroking the back of her clammy hand with her thumb. "Let me ask you something. When you're lying in bed sometimes and…and you can't _sleep_…and you feel like you might want to…have someone in the bed with you and perhaps…"

Anne inclined her head in a suggestive manor.

"Touch them in a certain way. Who do you think about?" she asked the trembling dandelion. "Harold Lockwood or Mary Pickford?"

Ann gave a slightly manic laugh. Laughed and didn't stop.

She knew the game was up.

"Neither, Anne," she said with tears of hysteria in her eyes once she had calmed down sufficiently to speak. "I think about _you."_


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes**

Sorry for the upload delay! I'd promise that it won't happen again, but I really can't!

I hope you enjoy the chapter, at any rate.

**Chapter 5**

Back in Halifax, Miss Lister was famous for several things, one of which was her brisk and rather dashing walk which today graced the pavements of Brooklyn between one of the most elegant of florist shops in the city and Miss Walker's glittering apartment building - three floors of which belonged to the young heiress.

Buoyed by her success the previous day, Anne was in a wonderful mood and, carrying her bunch of red roses, she docked her bowler hat to a group of giggling women looking in a shop window.

They stopped to gawk but, to Anne's satisfaction, she saw a distinct blush on two of the faces as she swaggered away.

Yes, her smile was exuding its full Wattage and Miss Walker was about to be a very charmed young woman.

_Yesterday an admission, today a kiss, tomorrow…well, I daren't hope. This is all a fastidiously delicate operation. It took two cups of tea and half an entire Bakewell tart to calm Ann down yesterday._

Fastidious delicacy was indeed required but, since all visits so far to the lovely Ann Walker had been under the guise of either polite acquaintance or 'psychoanalysis sessions', it was about time Miss Lister made her intensions clear, wasn't it?

Plus Miss Walker had admitted not only her preference for the fairer sex, but also a marked preference for Anne herself.

The thought of beautiful little Ann tossing and turning her way to sleep between her satin bedclothes with the older woman's face in her mind made Miss Lister's walk a little uncomfortable with the clamp of sudden tightness between her legs and the fluttering breathlessness in her lungs.

Reaching her destination, Anne rapped on the door impatiently for the concierge then flung herself up the stairs, two at a time, to Miss Walker's apartment and, more importantly, the woman herself.

"Miss Walker…" she began charmingly.

"Oh, hello Anne," the dandelion replied in a half-whisper.

Anne frowned seeing Miss Walker's gaze travel distractedly back to the wall after giving her a rather anxious look.

_I was rather worried that after her admission yesterday Miss Walker would send me away again. However, that was not to be._

"Is it a bad time?" Miss Lister asked haltingly, at loathe to leave so soon.

"No, no of course not!" the dandelion burst, getting up. "I'm sorry I haven't been more welcoming. So good to see you! I'm….just waiting for a telephone call. Come in! Come in!"

Ann chivied her guest inside and shut the door firmly.

With one of her smoothest moves, Anne produced the roses from behind her back with a flourish.

"For you, Ann," she said.

The dandelion's eyes lit up like bright little fairy lights.

"These are…Anne, they're so _pretty!"_ she exclaimed.

"So are you," Miss Lister said silkily.

The dandelion buried her nose in the roses.

"Goodness!" she breathed with a look of rapture on her face that Miss Lister's powerful imagination immediately took to other places. "And they smell wonderful!"

Miss Lister gave a low chuckle.

"So do you."

"Roses in January, Miss Lister!" Ann laughed, a little pink from the compliment. "They must have cost you a fortune!"

"Worth every penny," Miss Lister said with a softness that made Ann want to sigh.

And there it was again, that hopelessly heavy look. It was back on Miss Lister's face.

It was simultaneously sleepy and hungry and for some reason made Ann want to-

"Please take a seat!" the dandelion fussed. "Goodness, where are my manners? Can I get you anything?"

_Just _**_yourself _**_would be quite sufficient, Miss Walker…if you could lead the way to your bedroom…_

"Tea would be wonderful, thank you," Miss Lister said comfortably, eyeing her hostess very intently.

James, who had anticipated the moment, arrived with some tea and some expensive chocolates which he had bought for Miss Lister without question after his employer had assigned him the task.

She seemed rather taken with this Miss Lister character…

One might even think…

"Thank you, James," Miss Walker said as he retreated hastily, leaving her to study the handsome guest on the seat next to her as the older women launched into conversation.

Miss Lister was sitting closer and closer, the dandelion didn't fail to notice. With every word she seemed to almost swell in size, to take up more and more of Ann's vision and the air in her lungs.

However, the pull of intellectual gravity that attracted all creatures with a brain to Miss Lister didn't keep Ann from shooting fraught looks to the telephone now and again.

It was coming. It was coming.

Annoyingly, though Miss Lister was saying something very interesting, Ann just couldn't manage to listen.

She was waiting for the telephone to ring.

When it finally _did_ ring, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"I'll give you some privacy," Anne said, retreating with her disappointment to the next room to sulk - the ghostly reminders of the mystery suitor in her mind as she imagined Ann's caller.

However, disappointment soon became annoyance, then exasperation, then a hopelessly angry kind of protectiveness.

She could hear Ann's voice growing more and more frantic and, from her side of the conversation, Miss Lister was not hard-pushed to figure out its subject.

Anne sighed tightly and rubbed her forehead with her fingers.

"But _Peter,"_ the dandelion huffed weakly. "See, Aunt…yes…no…but I _have_ the money, I just can't wire it too you! I'm…well maybe _you_ could pay, and I could pay you _after_ the investment…but…"

Anne could hear the shuffling of Ann's little slippers as she hopped anxiously from one foot to another.

"Yes," she continued, with a note of hysteria in her voice. "I _know._ But the accountant says it's rather a _lot_ for one investment and perhaps…No I…No I don't _hate _you, Peter, I don't think _that! _I just wonder if the money…It's rather a lot, you see and…No, I understand you need it! I just didn't think you'd need it so _soon…_and all at once, and on top of what your mother has asked for and-"

Ann gave a surprised squark as the telephone was removed from her trembling hands.

"Hello, this is Miss Walker's lawyer," Anne snapped. "And if _any_ of you approach her for money ever again, Miss Walker will be taking legal action against you, is that clear?"

Ann listened to her cousin grow angry on the other side of the line.

"That is between my client and myself, thank you," Miss Lister continued with perfect impertinence.

Ann trembled as she heard a bad expletive hurled across the Atlantic, aimed at poor Miss Lister.

"Charming," Anne said dryly and put the phone down.

"Why did you do that?" Ann squeaked.

"Because I care about you," Miss Lister answered. "And your wellbeing."

"But…but…"

"These aunts and uncles and cousins protect you from gold diggers out in the world but not those in your own family!" Miss Lister burst exasperatedly.

"But…"

"They are making you _ill!"_ Anne spluttered. "These people!"

"But you see, my cousin needs the money for…for investment and such," Ann argued desperately.

Anne raised an eyebrow.

"Yes! _Yes,_ I know it's a lot of money!" Miss Walker continued, breathless with the promise of tears.

"Damn right!" Miss Lister laughed bitterly, sweeping a lap of the room to vent her feelings.

Ann flopped down on her sofa.

"My accountant says I must stop," she whispered. "…Because, well, since I don't have a…I'm not married yet."

The dandelion fiddled with her skirt which Miss Lister had noticed was a habit of hers and, what's more, rather though she should be doing it instead. Putting her hand under Miss Walker's skirt and keeping gong…

"He said I shouldn't give people so much money and I need to start investing," the dandelion confided to her peculiar friend. "But I barely know what that means."

She cast her teary eyes to the ceiling hopelessly.

"And then I told my cousin, Peter," Ann sniffled. "Who said he would invest it for me, which would mean that I had invested, like the accountant _asked,_ but I had given away the money like he said _not_ to!"

Miss Walker felt a hand tip her chin and then she was looking into a very deep pair of dark eyes.

Oh _how_ she wanted to…to…

"Luckily for you," Anne said, while a grin broke the surface of her frown as she tapped little Ann playfully on the nose. "You have _me."_

Did she? Did she really have somebody as special as Miss Lister? All to her very own? It was too good to be true.

"Oh Ann, don't cry! Here…" Miss Lister laughed kindly, gently passing the dandelion a handkerchief as the emotion became to much.

Ann buried her face in Miss Lister's smell as the article herself was doing a great deal of scheming.

"You say you need to make investment?" she asked the young woman, rubbing her soothingly on the back.

Ann's head bobbed dolefully.

"Ever thought about oil?"

And so it was with the same spring in her step that several hours later Anne returned to her hotel to make a telephone call.

"Good news, gentlemen," Anne said into the receiver. "We have our new expansion…"

"They're such beautiful trees - even without the leaves on," Ann said, gesturing to the park's wintery guardians. "Though…not quite a pretty as the flowers you got me."

Miss Lister grinned as she walked beside Ann through the new carpet of January snow upon the city.

Since Ann's investment in the company, Miss Lister had been busy making plans for expansion into their new oil field and was surprised how much she had missed Miss Walker's halting conversation for those few days and was thrilled to see her again.

"I'm sure a flower of yours would have them pale in comparison," Miss Lister murmured with her best coquettish half-smile.

Miss Walker giggled happily, though Miss Lister suspected that she hadn't understood to what the older, and more experienced woman, was referring.

Anne had to blink the image of Ann's blooming flower out of her mind to avoid ploughing staring into a snowdrift.

The cold didn't bother Anne so much as long as she could complain about it but Miss Walker was wrapped up like a Siberian princess in furs and a rather not-so-fashionable wooly hat which was a little too big and kept falling over her ears.

"So…you were saying," Ann began in the voice that meant she was tacking an _issue_ as she fought with the blasted hat. "Um…"

The dandelion glanced around nervously for potential eavesdroppers.

"Yes?" Miss Lister wondered and looked so dashing in her bowler had that for a moment Miss Walker lost her train of thought.

But only for a moment. Her beauty quickly reminded Ann of the issue at hand.

"You were saying…last week," the dandelion attempted again. "That you…that I wasn't ill because you had the same sort of…"

Ann windmilled with her hands trying to find the right word.

"…Thing, maybe…"

"Yes, indeed," Miss Lister nodded, smiling fondly as the hat made another attempt to cover Ann's eyes. "Go on."

"Well I…just wanted to thank you," Ann said seriously. "Because the voices, the spirits…aren't so cross with me now."

"Oh really?" Anne said

"Yes, and physically I've been feeling much better," Miss Walker told her excitedly. "I think it's something to do with…"

"With?" Miss Lister prompted.

"Well…knowing it's not just me," Ann admitted. "And…well, if it _were_ just me…I would be a bit worried God might be cross, you see?"

"I do see," Miss Lister said sympathetically.

"But if it's more of us it we ought to be alright, oughtn't we?" Ann said, looking hopefully to Miss Lister for confirmation from the woman she had grown quickly to implicitly trust.

Miss Lister nodded with a smile.

"I expect so, Miss Lister," she chuckled. "We're not all a bad sort, really."

"Hmmm," Miss Walker agreed, though thoughtfully. "And…what does it mean, really? I mean what are the implications of my…"

"Disposition?" Anne suggested delicately.

"Yes, of that."

"Well…I take it you wouldn't marry," she said reasonably, and using some of the hand gestures she often used while talking. "You might find people talk, and if you're open about it, or not steadfastly covert, should I say, you might find the world rather unforgiving. But, with the right friends, I think you shouldn't suffer for it."

Ann watched transfixed as the other woman gave her speech. She often thought that Miss Lister's hands spoke an extra language all of their own. She found them rather fascinating.

"…But you are wealthy enough that that shouldn't be a problem," she finished.

"Oh," Miss Walker said, feeling deflated all of a sudden. "So…that's it then? I shan't marry and…"

"And…" Miss Lister probed, looping her arm around Miss Walker's shoulders jauntily.

"I'm just worried that I might be lonely, you see," Ann said with a sigh. "To…never marry. For it always to be just _me."_

"You needn't be lonely, Ann!" Miss Lister burst with an incredulous chuckle, realising thats sheltered Miss Walker had not made the logical leap that she herself had at a rather early age. "Good heavens! What do you think we all do? Become nuns?"

"Well," the dandelion began, pained. "I don't think they'd let you _be_ a nun if-"

"No, Ann!" Miss Lister hissed, grinning with the enormity of the gift she was about to give Miss Walker. "We who prefer the fairer sex and are women ourselves…have relationships _with each other!"_

Miss Walker stopped dead.

"You mean…" she stuttered as her freckled cheeks coloured. "You _mean…"_

Miss Lister gave Ann a suggestive look that almost wilted the poor dandelion to the floor.

"Yes," she said.

Ann's forehead furrowed and she mouthed her thoughts, though Miss Lister couldn't make them out. She was thinking…thinking…

"Anne, we have to go back to my house," the dandelion decided suddenly, eyes snapping up with a focus Anne hadn't seen in them before.

"Why?" Miss Lister wondered. "Have you forgotten something?"

"No!" Ann said impatiently. "I just…there's something I have to tell you but…"

Ann looked around at the milling pedestrians.

"Just not here," she hissed.

Anne raised an eyebrow and Miss Walker's whole body sang.

"Really, Miss Walker?" she whispered with exaggerated breathiness. "And what could be so secret that you would have to whisk me away?"

"Something secret and _urgent,_ Miss Lister!" Ann laughed and grabbed Miss Lister's eager arm. "For goodness _sake!_ Come on!"

The two of them ran back around the corner to Ann's home, giggling like schoolgirls.

"James! We're having an emergency session!" Ann said, pulling of her coat and scarf as she closed her front door. "Please keep everyone out! It's confidential."

"Right-o. Will do, Miss Walker," James said, safely retreating to the other end of the dwelling.

Then, while Miss Lister watched, amused, Ann almost _ran_ into the sitting room.

"Sit, sit!" Ann flapped as she closed the door behind her guest.

"Why the sudden eagerness?" Miss Lister wondered, throwing herself carelessly down onto the sofa with an attractive smirk.

"Well…"

Now, with Miss Lister looking right at her with her hawk-like precision and focus, Miss Walker's fabulous idea didn't sound quite so feasible.

"I…wondered…um…" Miss Walker whispered, hands writhing in her lap. "If we might…I mean if you would be willing…"

She blushed at the fool she was making of herself. Of cause Anne didn't want…what she wanted.

"Gosh, I'm sorry," a pink Miss Walker laughed sheepishly. "I don't know what I was thin-"

"Yes, of _course_ I'll kiss you, Ann," Miss Lister interrupted seriously.

"What?" Ann spluttered. "How…why did you say that?"

Anne gave the dandelion a raised eyebrow.

"Ann, _really?" _

She laughed.

"You've forgotten our conversation already?" she chuckled kindly. "When you admitting to thinking about me? Reading between the lines, those thoughts weren't the sort to stem from common friendship."

"You'll really do it?" Ann breathed, eyes round as saucers.

"Yes," Miss Lister told her, _her_ eyes molten onyx in their intensity.

"Why?" the dandelion wondered.

At this, Miss Lister laughed in earnest.

"Miss Walker, for crying out loud!" she cried, leaping from her place beside Ann to kneel on the floor in front of her. "Why do you think I'm here all the time?"

"A lot of people spend time with me because I'm very rich," Ann whispered with a sad shrug.

Miss Lister rolled her eyes theatrically.

"I spend time with you, Ann," she told the dandelion. "Because I really _like_ you!"

"You do?" Miss Walker asked sounding very young and rather teary.

"Yes!"

"Are you _sure?"_ Ann said shakily as a stray tear ran down her cheek.

_"__Yes!"_ Miss Lister laughed wiping the tear away with her thumb.

"Oh…"

The dandelion's eyes became wider and rather dreamy as Anne leant closer and closer and closer until she could feel the older woman's body heat.

"Your eyes," Miss Lister murmured while her own burned. "They're like the sky over Prague."

"Is it lovely in Prague?" Ann whispered.

"Oh yes, beautiful," Miss Lister said, forming her words so quietly and so carefully that the dandelion leaned closer to listen. "You're very beautiful, Ann."

"Really?" Ann said with the merest of breaths, unused to being quite so _close _to another person.

"Would I lie to you, my darling?" Anne drawled in a syrupy voice while her hands dragged along Ann's thighs and onto her waist, making Miss Walker's back arch a little in reflexive response.

"Am I your _darling?"_ Ann all but choked as Miss Lister's thumbs made little circles on her tummy which really oughtn't to be allowed, Ann thought, the way her mind was fogging because of them.

"Since I first saw you on the boat," Anne admitted roughly. "…And there you were so radiant…"

She gave a shuddery breath which Ann couldn't help but mimic with the warm heaviness growing in the pit of her stomach.

"Yes, you were," Anne whispered, right against the dandelion's ear (and it may as well have between her legs for all the trouble it caused). "…And I've been counting the _minutes _until you were ready to hear that."

The thud of the inevitable was coursing thought Miss Walker's veins like a drummer on a battleship.

"Anne…please…please will you kiss me?" she breathed.

Miss Lister drew away - just enough to look into Ann's eyes.

"Miss Walker," she said with a moan in her voice. "There is _nothing_ I'd like more…"


	6. Chapter 6

Anne moved closer slowly,_ slowly_ and brushed Miss Walker's plump bottom lip with her own.

The young woman let out a little breath which tickled Miss Lister's face as she felt the shot of passion hit her.

For the first time in her twenty-nine years, Ann felt _genuine_ passion.

As a result, Miss Walker tipped her head willingly towards Anne's and the young woman felt a surge of energy rush through her as Miss Lister pressed her lips to her own and moved her hands to encircle her waist with a possessiveness that she enjoyed to a scandalous degree.

Anne withdrew for a moment, letting the tension fill the air and enjoying the frankly started look on the dandelion's face. Then, teasingly, she dipped her head back in and captured Ann's soft lips a second time.

She heard the younger woman give an involuntary little gasp, which turned into something much deeper as, not letting her lips leave Ann's for a moment, Miss Lister moved her hands down to cup the perfect little bottom she had been admiring covertly for some while now.

She squeezed.

_G-goodness me!_

_Oh God, _**_fuck!_**

Fuelled with lust, Anne tipped her precious love backwards flat on the sofa and adopted her favoured and dominant position above the other woman.

Looking up at her, little Miss Walker gave Anne a pleading, almost needy look and knotted her hands resolutely in the older women's skirt.

Grinning, Miss Lister bent her head down to her prize.

This kiss was achy, slow and so utterly, utterly forbidden.

Then, to an unspoken cue that Miss Walker hadn't picked up on, Miss Lister began to move her lips more enthusiastically, causing an anaesthetic throb of arousal to hit Miss Walker's bloodstream in earnest.

With Anne lying her dandelion flat on the sofa, this kiss was achy, slow and so utterly, _utterly_ forbidden.

Then, to an unspoken cue that Miss Walker hadn't picked up on, Miss Lister began to move her lips more enthusiastically, causing an anaesthetic throb of arousal to hit Miss Walker's bloodstream in earnest.

A beautiful feeling gathered between her legs like a thundercloud - all heat and pressure and electricity.

Miss Lister pulled away only to sweep her lips to Ann's jawline where she pulled the skin teasingly with her mouth.

_"__Ann," _she whispered throatily, sounding so thoroughly and so _desperately_ risqué that the dandelion's breath hitched in her aching chest.

But this reminded Ann of something: this was Miss _Lister_ she was kissing, the real-life, _actual_ Miss Lister, not her dream counterpart who suddenly seemed comparatively dreary.

Miss Lister who didn't deserve to be wasting such lovely, shivery kisses on someone as useless as Ann.

At this thought, the thundercloud dissipated somewhat.

Anne felt Miss Walker stiffen moments before she pulled away.

"Ann…Ann darling what is it?" Miss Lister asked, concerned.

The dandelion dropped her head, as if in shame, and Anne worried that she might be having second thoughts.

"Ann…Ann what is the matter?" she asked again, more urgently.

"I…I don't deserve you," the younger woman whispered brokenly.

"What?" Miss Lister breathed, forehead crumpling. "Oh Ann, _no."_

At those kind words, the dandelion started to cry prettily into Miss Lister's stern shoulder.

"Why ever would you say that?" Anne murmured gently as she rocked herself and Miss Walker back and fourth gently.

"You're so c-clever and interesting," Ann wept. "And I'm just…so _boring_ and…I'm sure there are other people you'd rather be doing this with!"

"Ann, even if you _were_ boring," Miss Lister said with her assured calm. "That's not the way this works. I'm very fond of you Ann. You _are_ clever and interesting. Not to mention very very pretty…"

Miss Lister felt Miss Walker's head shake a 'no'.

"You are kind," the older woman continued breathlessly, pulling back to look in to Ann's doe-eyes. "And gentle and _rich…"_

She traced Miss Walker's lips with her thumb.

"With inspiration. And ideas. And I feel lucky to have you," she whispered indulgently.

"You can't mean it," Ann said harshly, pulling away.

"I tend to mean things I say," Miss Lister said carefully. "Who has made you feel you aren't worth my attention?"

"Well…P-peter, my cousin," Miss Walker said shakily with another batch of tears threatening. "S-said I didn't deserve all the money I inherited when my parents and my brother died and-"

"Well, perhaps Peter can have his whole close family die, then," Miss Lister snapped, thinking about telephoning the man back for an even more in-depth conversation about his conduct towards his lovely cousin.

Ann gasped.

"Sorry that was crass," Miss Lister apologised, realising that was so. "But consider what you have compensation, God's compensation."

"I've…never thought about it like that," Miss Walker mused.

_But think, Miss Walker may have both money and companionship one day soon…_

"But I could never earn money by myself, you see!" the dandelion continued frantically. "And…and I need a husband to take care of me…and…and I don't have any skills or talent-"

"No talent, Miss Walker?" Anne repeated incredulously, as she allowed her eyes to wander round the room and land on several of the dandelion's rather good artworks.

With a gasp of shock, Miss Walker felt emptiness between her fingertips as Miss Lister darted over to one of the framed paintings.

"May I take this?" she asked, gesturing to one of Ann's rather more abstract works that was leaning against the wall.

"If you even want it," Ann sniffled, wiping her nose in a rather unladylike way. "It's not worth anything anyway!"

A single tear moseyed its way down her cheek in a rather film-starry fashion which distracted Miss Lister somewhat before Ann continued.

_"__I'm_ not worth anything!" she choked.

Miss Lister closed her eyes and savoured the new memory of Ann's silken lips.

"I know that's not true Miss Walker," she said firmly.

She gestured to the painting she now held.

"How long did this take you?" Anne wondered aloud. "Conception to finished piece?"

Ann shrugged.

"Two days in all, maybe," she whispered.

"Only _two?"_ Miss Lister asked, surprised by the quality of the work in such a short time.

"I know," Ann sighed, agitatedly rising to her feet and wringing her perfect little hands. "I know it's rushed but-"

"On the contrary, Miss Walker," Miss Lister beamed. "I find myself nearly as fond of it as I am of you. Which is an awful lot, if you were wondering."

"Really?" Ann asked pleadingly.

"Really," Miss Lister told her with one of her heart-flutteringly beady-eyed smiles.

She took both of Ann's artist's hands.

"Now, for the next week or so I'll be out of the city. In Chicago on business," Miss Lister told Ann with a sigh in her voice. "God, a trip with Marshall and Elton for company."

She chuckled darkly to herself.

"Good Lord that's a repulsive thought," she huffed. "But when I get back, I promise you will have changed your mind about your worth."

"Anne, you know as soon as you leave…" Ann said, as quiet as a mouse. "…Always when you leave I just feel…"

The dandelion shuddered

"Like everything's falling apart!" she hissed desperately, tears twinkling like jewels in her eyelashes.

"Well it isn't," Anne said with finality, eyeing Miss Walker as she stroked her hand. "And I'll be back before you know it."

Then, with a parting kiss on the forehead and a gust of purpose, Anne left.

However, Miss Lister didn't go directly to her hotel to pack, rather she caught a cab to the other side of town.

"This is a work by friend of mine, Andrew Walker," she told the gallery's manager after she had made her journey across the city. "I was wondering if you knew round about how much a collector might pay for it?"

"Hmmmm," the man said, lifting a monocle to his eye.

"It's a nice piece," he said interestedly. _"Very_ nice."

"Yes," Anne agreed impatiently (any idiot could see it was _nice)._ "But what's it worth?"

The man raised his bushy white eyebrows.

"Well…to the right buyer…" he said before leaning in to mutter the amount to his visitor without the rest of the gallery hearing.

"That much?" Anne asked, surprised despite herself.

"We would estimate," the man said loftily. "Based on what the enthusiasts are prepared to bid each other up to."

"Well…_goodness,"_ Miss Lister said, with her most dangerously enrapturing smile stretching across her face. "I didn't realise."

"If we could keep this overnight," the man continued. "We could show it to some of our private collectors - see what they think of it."

"Yes, Rothschild likes that sort of thing," nodded an associate as he passed and his eye widened to the same degree of greed as his boss. "He needs paintings for the new home he's building. I'll let him know there's a piece he might be interested in."

"By all means!" Anne grinned, seeing rather than the clichéd dollar bill before her eyes, Miss Walker's perfect happy smile.

Once arrangements had been made, Miss Lister donned once again her bowler hat and prepared to dash back out into the snow which posed little obstacle considering the energy with which she walked.

"He's good your Mr Walker," Mr Arrow-Smith said as the eccentric woman paused at the door, ready to fling herself into the blizzard.

"The best," Miss Lister smiled, feeling a warmth in her belly despite the temperature on the porch.

"Tell me are you two…_good_ friends?" Arrow-Smith asked, his implication clear.

"Yes," Anne smirked. "But not in the way you think."

And, with that, the woman vanished like an impatient spectre into the New York evening.

"A package for you, ma'am," James said gently to Ann who had retreated to her nest in the corner of the sitting room after having finally been persuaded to leave her bed.

Miss Walker's aches and pains had returned with a passion, and on top of that, Miss Lister was _not there,_ and had left the city on a _train_ no less!

Oh _dreadful_ accidents could happen to trains in heavy snow!

Besides the fact that Miss Lister could well meet a grizzly end, like Ann's poor brother in Naples, the woman's absence meant that Miss Walker was thinking with her head, rather than her heart and, as many well knew, her head wasn't always very well.

What had she _done?_ What had_ they_ done?

Kissing another woman! _Kissing_ her! For _passion!_

Ann buried her face, burning with shame, in her knees.

Surely God couldn't forgive something so…so…_obscene._

She gave a sniff and ignored the package. Damned women needn't bother opening their parcels.

However, as the afternoon trickled by, the parcel became somehow impossible to ignore, though even the thought of thinking about opening it became frightening.

James' quiet rap on the door made Ann seize up in terror.

"Miss Walker, would you like any tea?" he asked gently. "Anything to eat?"

"No thank you, James," came her whispered reply.

"In that case, a note for you," James said, passing the dandelion the envelope. "From Miss Lister."

Miss Lister!

Lethargy forgotten, Ann heaved herself to her feet and opened the note.

_I know what you're like, Miss Walker!_

_Open the parcel - it doesn't bite! _

_A.L._

Now excited, Ann dashed over to the table where the object sat, quite innocently, dressed in its brown paper.

Whatever could it be?

She fumbled with the wrappings.

It's…it's…

Oh!

_Oh… _

But…

Miss Lister had…s-sent back her painting! Goodness! What did it all mean? She must have hated it! _Hated_ it!

However the note taped to the glass of the frame said otherwise.

_Congratulations Miss Walker, _Miss Lister's even script read. _This is what two days of your time is worth to the New York contemporary art market._

_You should be very proud._

_Yours in awe, and with much affection,_

_Anne_

_(P.S. Marshall and Elton are driving me 'round the bend! I cannot wait to return to some decent company!)_

With a shaking hand, and not quite believing her eyes, Ann opened the more official-looking letter.

_Dear A. Walker, _it began.

_Based upon our experience with contemporary art, we estimate your work to be valued at around $US 500 at auction should you wish to sell._

_Alternatively, several of our clients have shown an interest in buying this piece from you, including a Mr Rothschild who is contactable through our gallery should you wish to discuss terms of sale with his assistants._

_You show great promise and, should you wish to book exhibition space, we would be happy to accommodate you._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Chairman of the Roosevelt Gallery. _

_Christopher Arrow-smith._

After tracing her finger ver the loopy signature on the bottom of the page, for the first time in her life, Ann Walker cried with _joy._

"So, what did you think of Chicago?" drawled the younger man as he plonked himself down uninvited at Miss Lister's table in the train's dining car.

"It's was alright," Anne shrugged, taking another sip of her drink and looking pointedly at her newspaper.

"_'__Alright_?" her fellow director scoffed with a smirk. "I expected a little better from you, Miss Lister."

With this ridiculous remark, Anne lost her temper.

"How was Chicago?" Miss Lister repeated incredulously. "What did you expect me to say? It's another city not the moon, Elton!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Good _Lord _you're a _bore,"_ she sneered and turned to glower out of the dark train windows.

Mr Elton merely grinned and for more comfortable in his seat.

"So…your investor," the man began again. "This….Miss Walker we've heard so much about. Are you two…good friends?"

"We're friends, yes," Miss Lister said tautly. "Unlike you and I. Surely there's someone else you could go and bother?"

"You see her an awful lot…" Elton remarked with an inquisitively arched eyebrow, ignoring his dismissal.

"As you'd imagine!" Anne replied impatiently. "She's just invested an awful lot in our venture! I have to keep her informed."

"Yeah…about that…" frowned the young man.

He leaned forward in his seat.

"You see…I'm just….I'm just trying to figure out why she'd do that…for a friend," Elton said in his hopelessly charming way. "Even a _good_ friend, the amount of money she invested."

"Well why don't you ask _her?"_ Anne said sweetly before her expression soured. "Except you'll never meet her because you're too scruffy for polite society."

Elton sucked in a gleeful breath between his even teeth.

"You English snobs!" he chuckled. "Know everything about empires but nothing about money."

"I beg to differ," Miss Lister smirked.

"Yes…I was wondering why you've suddenly started drinking expensive scotch," Elton said with another raised eyebrow.

"Let's just say I put some of Miss Walker's loan into the Stock market…" Anne said casually.

"So you're in Speculation now?" Elton asked, surprised. "That's a dangerous game."

"Well, we're not alive if we're not taking the odd risk…" Miss Lister commented wryly.

"And…your risk paid off?" Elton wondered.

"As you say…" Miss Lister whispered. "I'm drinking the expensive scotch."

Mr Handsome threw his head back and laughed merrily showing his perfectly while teeth against his tanned skin.

"You _are_ on the ball, Miss Lister," he chortled.

"One of us needs to be," she retorted, but with a smile.

"In that case," Elton said. "I think you can afford to buy me a drink,"

Miss Lister rolled her eyes, but did comply with his request.

"One for my friend here," Miss Lister said carelessly to a passing waiter.

"So I _am_ your friend now?" Elton smirked.

Miss Lister rolled her eyes with even greater theatrical magnificence, but fairly fondly.

"To the company," she said, raising her glass in a toast as Elton's drink arrived.

"To you and your Miss Walker," handsome Mr Elton replied, mirroring the motion but with a knowing look in his eye that Miss Lister wasn't at all happy with.


End file.
